Exactly one player in Louisville franchise history played with a last name beginning with the letter “U.” Tom Urbani appeared in 50 games for the Louisville Redbirds between 1992 and 1996 while in the Cardinals organization. He would go on to appear in 81 Major League games (65 with St. Louis and 16 with Detroit) before calling it quits in 1998.
There was, however, another Louisville player, infielder Jose Gonzalez, who changed his name to Jose Uribe (his mother’s maiden name) sometime following his trade from St. Louis to San Francisco. Gonzalez appeared in 275 games for the Redbirds between the franchise’s first year of 1982 and 1984. He went on to a ten-year big league career appearing in 1038 games, 985 of them with the Giants. He died tragically in a car accident in 2006 at the age of 47.
Now, what is the connection between Mr. Urbani and Mr. Gonzalez/Uribe? Both share January 21 as a birthday–Urbani in 1968 (Happy 47th) and Gonzalez/Uribe in 1959. Like so many things in baseball, just another odd coincidence.
(images via krispaulw.com)